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Film Study: How Southern Miss' pass rush kept the Golden Eagles in the game versus Auburn

Nick Suss, Hattiesburg American
Published 12:15 p.m. CT Oct. 1, 2018

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Southern Miss coach Jay Hopson talked about what he saw from his team in the Golden Eagles' 24-13 loss against No. 10 Auburn on Saturday.
Nick Suss, Hattiesburg American

Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham (8) throws the ball under pressure against Southern Miss at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala., on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018. Auburn leads Southern Miss 14-3, the game went into a weather delay with 4:27 left in the second quarter.(Photo: Jake Crandall)

HATTIESBURG — There's no tool in a defense's arsenal more powerful than disruption.

Southern Miss showed this on Saturday. In the Golden Eagles' 24-13 loss at No. 10 Auburn, Southern Miss defenders logged three sacks and four quarterback hurries against Jarrett Stidham and the stout Auburn offensive line which, coming into Saturday, had only allowed seven sacks in four games. By comparison, Auburn allowed three combined sacks against Washington and LSU, two teams ranked in the top 10.

And what's more? Southern Miss was able to achieve this outcome without overloading the box. Across its seven "disruption plays" against Stidham, USM not only never blitzed more than five rushers, it never had more than five defenders in the box to begin with. Every one of USM's seven disruption plays came out of a 3-2 formation with six defensive backs on the field, meaning Southern Miss' defenders won their one-on-one battles to get to Stidham, rather than taking advantage of a schematic loophole.

For this week's Southern Miss film study, let's take a look at exactly what the Golden Eagles were able to do to keep Stidham off balance, and how that almost led to the Golden Eagles' biggest upset win in years.

First level

For the purposes of today's film study, let's simplify defensive pressures into three types: first level, second level and third level. We'll call first-level pressures any sack or hurry caused by a down linemen. Second-level pressures come from linebackers and third-level pressures are caused either by defenders coming out of the secondary or strong coverage.

As with any football play, no one player or unit deserves credit for a positive play. But, for the sake of simplification, that's what we're going to look at today. And we'll start with first-level pressures. Or, in Southern Miss' case, Jacques Turner pressures.

The redshirt sophomore defensive end was everywhere for Southern Miss on Saturday. Turner finished the day with four tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble. He's quietly having a good season for himself, already with 4.5 tackles for loss and two hurries to go along with his two sacks from Saturday. But the Auburn game was Turner's coming out party.

Mostly because of plays like this one. Turner shows speed off the edge by dipping underneath Auburn tackle Austin Troxell and impressive strength by dragging down Stidham with one arm while Troxell still tried to push him off. One-move pass rush plays like this one make Turner at times look like a future NFL prospect.

But Turner had the kind of day Saturday where even when he wasn't bringing the quarterback down, he was making the plays necessary for his team to succeed. Consider this second quarter snap for which linebacker Racheem Boothe was credited with a hurry.

This snap was Southern Miss' niftiest pass rush play of the evening. Boothe attacks the gap between Auburn's tackles and guard, forcing a double team. Demarrio Smith slants between the guard and center, forcing the center to slide toward him. Naturally, Turner loops around that trio of blockers toward the offensive interior. Auburn's guard tries to break toward the stunting Turner, but he's too late.

Turner sprints unabated toward Stidham, forcing him out of the pocket. Boothe breaks off his block as Stidham headed toward the sideline, forcing a throw-away and earning his hurry.

Schematically, this play worked brilliantly. Two defenders occupied three blockers while a third defender came up the middle unblocked. Perfect execution on a smart play design. Boothe ultimately got the credit, but Turner and Smith deserve just as much credit.

Second level

When talking about Southern Miss' pass-rushing linebackers, the conversation usually begins with senior Sherrod Ruff. Ruff is a skilled interior pass rusher who came into Saturday with four career sacks, four hurries and four forced fumbles. He added to those totals Saturday with a sack and two hurries.

We'll get to one of his hurries in a little bit, but let's start with his sack. Because Ruff shows off his athletic explosiveness on this play by absolutely blowing up Auburn's last line of protection.

Once again, you have to give Turner credit for forcing Stidham to step up in the pocket. But there wasn't a pocket to step up into because of Ruff, who bullied Auburn running back Malik Miller with a power shoulder, stunned him backward, then kept ranging forward for a sack of Stidham.

Ruff did the same thing on his second quarterback hurry of the evening, busting through the line of scrimmage to face a running back 1-on-1 and winning the battle. Ruff is the kind of pass rusher who should win most matchups against running backs in pass protection, so it's intuitive that USM will run schemes to create those matchups.

That Auburn continually let that happen without Southern Miss having to overload one side is a surprising schematic failing on their part, if not a move of pure ambivalence toward USM's strengths.

Third level

No two-word phrase makes defensive coaches more excited than "coverage sack." Well, except for maybe "pick six." But coverage sacks are the most encouraging plays a defense can put together. Not only does it mean your defensive backfield has taken away all of the offense's options, it means your pass rushers kept motoring, pushing through what has become a long play to find the quarterback.

USM had one such play on Saturday, a coverage hurry that forced a lazy Auburn throwaway and, eventually, a punt.

Auburn runs a series of underneath routes here, covered up well by Boothe between the hashes and the numbers and nickelback Picasso Nelson Jr. between the numbers and the sideline. Stidham has to dance out of the way of a speed rush from senior defensive end Ladarius Harris and is eventually forced out of rhythm by Smith flying in from five yards off the ball.

Eventually, Ruff gets his hands around Stidham's waist, forcing an errant throw over the head of tight end Sal Cannella. This play put Auburn behind the yard markers for a 2nd-and-10 and put in motion what should've been a three-and-out that put Southern Miss in striking distance to score with time on the clock, but a running into the punter penalty gave Auburn more time with the ball.

Regardless, this play was an encouraging one. It required all 11 of Southern Miss' players to win their individual responsibilities and it worked.

What does it mean?

Obviously, Southern Miss couldn't finish off the upset. Despite the best efforts of the Golden Eagles' three-phase pass rush. Still, a game like this is a step forward for a USM defense that only had two sacks in three games before Saturday.

Southern Miss was able to put pressure on a quarterback on a top-10 team using no more than five pass rushers, and did so with minimal stunting or delaying. Its top pass-rush specialist won their 1-on-1 battles and its secondary played well enough to give the pass rush time to develop.

Against pass-happy teams in the Conference USA like North Texas and Louisiana Tech, both of which average more than 40 pass attempts per game, a strong rush will be the best defense. Disrupt the quarterback, set yourself up to win. It's that simple.

And simplicity is what Southern Miss has to be aiming for if it wants to set itself up to be successful in conference play.